Stop stepping on my toes!

Those who follow the goings on of the Church of England will have will have seen much coverage in the media about the statement by the House of Bishops ‘Marriage and Same Sex Relationships after the Shared Conversations’ published on Friday 27 January 2017 ahead of the February sitting of The General Synod. After three long years of ‘Shared Conversations’ on the nature of marriage and the experiences of Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Christians this report has been been seen by many if not all in the LGBT community as unbelievable, unacceptable and ungodly.

There have been some powerful and challenging responses to this report. The Dean of Leicester has written of his dismay and sense of betrayal. Jane Ozanne, a lay member of the General Synod from our Diocese, has written in Premier Christianity of her anger and her deep concern for the well-being of vulnerable LGBT teenagers growing up in many Christian homes, who will continue to be subject to abusive teaching and practices that we know causes depression, self-hatred, self-harm and sadly even suicide.

One of the best responses has come from a friend, Ruth Harley, who works in a church in High Wycombe. With her permission I am copying it below.

The Chase Benefice seeks to be an Inclusive Church where all are welcome, loved and accepted. Please join me in praying for all those who have been affected by this report and also for the meeting of General Synod and for the House of Bishops.

The report bears careful reading in full. But the ‘take-away’ message for many has been this: the Bishops have said this is all very difficult; they say it is important that the ‘tone’ around matters of sexuality and relationships changes; they say they recommend that there is absolutely no change, whatsoever, in Church law or doctrine to enable same-sex relationships to be affirmed and celebrated. Unfortunately, they do not explain how this change of ‘tone’ – where the Church becomes, apparently, more loving and welcoming towards LGBT people who wish to be in committed relationships – can be achieved without changing anything else at all.

Many people have said to me since the publication of the report that at least the bishops want to change the tone. At least there’s that. That’s some sort of progress, surely? But I don’t think so. It’s easy to ask for “a change of tone” if doing so doesn’t demand any actual changes, but it’s also a useless, empty piece of rhetoric if nothing really changes.

And even if a change of tone is actually – miraculously – somehow achieved without changing anything else, that still isn’t really progress. Because – and this is important – a change of tone isn’t what we were asking for. Being nice to people, while continuing to uphold the systems that oppress them, doesn’t count for much.

I, as a faithful gay Christian, am not asking for a change of tone. I am not asking for just a little bit more kindness, handed down by the bishops (or anyone else) as if they are doing me a favour. They aren’t. I am not asking for kindness, I am asking for justice. For recognition as the full and equal members of the Body of Christ, which I know myself and my LGBT siblings to be.

And this, of all the many contenders, is perhaps the aspect of the whole debacle that makes me the most angry. I – and many other LGBT Christians – made myself very open, very vulnerable, in the Shared Conversations process, because I was assured that we were being listened to. That does not seem to have happened at all. The report does not address the issues we have raised or the questions we have asked. Truly, we asked for bread, and they gave us a stone. However lovely a stone it might be, we cannot eat it. However nice and polite they may be, there is still someone standing on my foot.

I do not buy into the idea that I should be grateful for the scraps that fall from the table of those who have never had their place at that table called into question. It is not their table, and it is not mine. It is Christ’s table, and he invites us all to sit around it as equal, beloved children of God. That is the only possible basis for any real conversation.

So if you want to have a real conversation about these “issues” – whether you’re a bishop, a vicar, or anyone else – start by listening. Really listening. Listening to the hopes and prayers and desires of the people you are talking about. Listening to our hurt and, quite possibly, to things that will hurt you to hear. Try to respond to what you hear, not what you want to hear. And be prepared to put in the “hard thought, hard prayer, hard work” which is the only thing that can ever lead to any real, deep transformation.